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October 10, 2008

Siemens to Supply Steam Turbine for Solar Tres Project in Spain

by Sam Savage

Siemens Energy has announced that it will supply an industrial steam turbine for commercial solar tower power plants at the Solar Tres project, which will be built by Sener with a capacity of 19MW at a site in the vicinity of Seville in Andalusia, Spain.

For the Solar Tres project, Siemens will supply an industrial steam turbine specially adapted to meet solar technology requirements. The turbine is expected to become a reference product for solar tower power plants.

In the Solar Tres solar tower power plant operated by Sener the sunlight will be bundled by sun-tracking mirrors known as heliostats, and will be reflected directly to a receiver located on top of an approximately 120m-high tower. The heliostats will be arranged over a surface area of 320,000sqm.

Siemens said that a distinctive feature of the Sener project is the use of salt for heat transfer in the interior of the receiver instead of the thermo oil normally used in solar thermal power plants. Bundling of the sunlight produces temperatures of over 850 degrees celsius at the solar receiver.

The salt, heated to approximately 565 degrees celsius, flows in a molten state through a heat exchanger, in which sufficient steam is produced to operate a steam turbine-generator.